Baldecchi going ‘Mad’

Duo helming heist comedy for Bender Prods.

Freshman writing-directing team Drew Daywalt and David Schneider are set to helm the youth-market heist comedy “Stark Raving Mad” for producer John Baldecchi at Lawrence Bender Prods.

Daywalt and Schneider directed videos for MTV Europe and wrote for the Disney animated show “The Wacky World of Tex Avery.” They are currently doing a rewrite on the script “Cuba Has Fleas” for producer Gary Foster’s Horseshoe Bay Prods. at Disney.

Newmarket Capital developed the script and brought it to Baldecchi. Newmarket execs Aaron Ryder, William Tyrer and Chris Ball will exec produce, along with Lawrence Bender.

Baldecchi will produce and Nicole Pennington will co-produce for Lawrence Bender Prods. Bender is a partner with Quentin Tarantino in production company A Band Apart. The Bender productions in which Tarantino isn’t involved fly under the Lawrence Bender Prods. flag.

Pic, with Newmarket Capital funding a budget of $8 million-$10 million, concerns a group of twentysomethings who rent a restaurant to stage a rave party. But their real goal is to use the distraction of the rave as a cover for breaking into the bank next to the restaurant.

The film is in the early stages of casting. Producers hope to start shooting in late spring.

Baldecchi produced “Deep Rising” and exec produced “Stuart Little.” Miramax would get first shot at distribution under Bender’s first-look deal with the studio.

Daywalt and Schneider are repped by Jon Klane at the Jon Klane Agency, and by attorney Jeff Frankel of Colden, McKuin & Frankel.